The hot, dry summer and an increase in vineyard planting resulted in the third-largest UK grape harvest
English and Welsh winemakers have reported a sharp rise in production, after the hot, dry summer in 2025 and an increase in vineyard planting resulted in the third-largest UK harvest.
The equivalent of 16.5m bottles were produced across the UK last year – or 124,377 hectolitres – according to figures from the wine regulator, the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Continue reading...Tehran denied negotiations that delayed US strikes and Trump was vague on the details, but talks signal renewed push for peace from regional powers
There have been so many abortive rounds of diplomacy between the US and Iran – the latest appearing to be led by Pakistan after Washington has burned through many other regional mediators – that it was hardly a surprise that President Trump’s claims of “very good” talks with Tehran initially provoked disbelief – especially after Iran denied that any negotiations were taking place at all.
Nonetheless, standing beside Air Force One, Trump did his best to sell the sudden detente with little detail as a US ultimatum to bomb Iran’s power plants loomed unless Tehran opened up the strait of Hormuz. It was lost on few that the sudden about-face came just hours before US markets were to open for what promised to be another punishing round of trading on Monday.
Continue reading...Production based on 1993 novel opens at Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in July, with original songs co-written by the author
It has been a book, a play and a film. It has also spawned three sequels, a prequel and two soundtrack albums. Now, Irvine Welsh’s 1993 debut novel Trainspotting is to find new life as a musical.
Opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in July, Trainspotting the Musical will be adapted by the author with an original set of songs, plus others that were used in Danny Boyle’s celebrated film.
Continue reading...
Zo’n tien jaar geleden ontmoette ik in een Leidse kroeg Wim Rijsbergen. Niet alleen een sympathieke man, maar ook een vat vol verhalen.
:format(jpeg):fill(f8f8f8,true)/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/wp-content/blogs.dir/114/files/2019/07/ikje5bij3-1.png)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) introduced (PDF) a bill on Monday that could prevent prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket from allowing users to wager money on sports events or play casino-style games. This bipartisan bill would not apply to FanDuel and DraftKings, which are subject to state-by-state gambling laws, rather than federal ones. "Sports prediction contracts are sports bets -- just with a different name. And yet, these contracts are currently offered in all fifty states in clear violation of state and federal law," Schiff said in a statement.
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are regulated under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is why Schiff and Curtis are able to address them under federal jurisdiction, rather than leaving them to state-regulated sportsbooks. But these senators argue that there isn't much of a difference in practice between betting on sports via federally or state-regulated apps. Kalshi's Super Bowl trading volume, for instance, reached over $1 billion this year -- a 2700% increase year-over-year. "Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators," Curtis said in a statement. The report notes that Kalshi is temporarily banned in Nevada and is facing criminal charges in Arizona. "Kalshi may brand itself as a 'prediction market,' but what it's actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement last week.
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are regulated under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is why Schiff and Curtis are able to address them under federal jurisdiction, rather than leaving them to state-regulated sportsbooks. But these senators argue that there isn't much of a difference in practice between betting on sports via federally or state-regulated apps. Kalshi's Super Bowl trading volume, for instance, reached over $1 billion this year -- a 2700% increase year-over-year. "Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators," Curtis said in a statement. The report notes that Kalshi is temporarily banned in Nevada and is facing criminal charges in Arizona. "Kalshi may brand itself as a 'prediction market,' but what it's actually doing is running an illegal gambling operation and taking bets on Arizona elections, both of which violate Arizona law," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement last week.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Wing is expanding its drone delivery service to the San Francisco Bay Area. "The drone delivery startup has been rapidly expanding to metro areas across the US, but is now targeting the tech-friendly Silicon Valley region," reports Engadget. From the report: Going back to its inaugural deliveries, Wing ferried office supplies across Google's Mountain View campus in the Bay Area with its automated drones. It was still a startup out of Google's X, The Moonshot Factory incubator at the time, but early users were already asking for home delivery services, according to Wing. Now, Wing's latest delivery drones can deliver groceries, food, or whatever else fits in a small package weighing up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less to Bay Area residents. Earlier this year, Wing expanded its service to an additional 150 Walmart stores across the U.S. Service began recently in Atlanta and Charlotte, and it's coming soon to Los Angeles, Houston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Miami and other major U.S. cities to be announced later. "By 2027, Walmart and Wing say they'll have a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations nationwide."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Nederland was ook vorig jaar een van de innovatiekoplopers als het gaat om octrooiaanvragen in Europa. Dat meldt het Europees Octrooibureau (EOB). Nederlandse bedrijven en uitvinders hebben 7006 Europese octrooien aangevraagd. Dat komt neer op 388 aanvragen per miljoen inwoners. Daarmee staat Nederland per inwoner wereldwijd in de top vijf.
In totaal werden vorig jaar een recordaantal van 201.974 octrooiaanvragen ingediend bij het EOB. Dat is een lichte stijging vergeleken met een jaar eerder. De meeste aanvragen kwamen uit de Verenigde Staten, Duitsland, China, Japan, Zuid-Korea, Frankrijk en Zwitserland. Daarna komt Nederland in die ranglijst, waarmee we dus na Duitsland en Frankrijk het EU-land met de meeste aanvragen zijn.
De belangrijkste sector voor Nederlandse patentaanvragen is medische technologie. Zorgtechnologieconcern Philips bleef dan ook de grootste Nederlandse speler met 1289 aanvragen. Verlichtingsbedrijf Signify, chipproducent NXP Semiconductors, chipmachinemaker ASML, gezondheids- en voedingsbedrijf dsm-firmenich en onderzoeksinstituut TNO staan ook in de top tien van Nederlandse aanvragers.
ASML
Als wordt gekeken naar regio's, dan komen de meeste patentaanvragen uit Noord-Brabant. Dat komt omdat ASML is gevestigd in het Brabantse Veldhoven en Philips en Signify veel onderzoeksactiviteiten in Eindhoven hebben. Volgens het EOB kwamen er uit Noord-Brabant 3616 aanvragen, dat is meer dan de helft van alle Nederlandse aanvragen. Gelderland liet de sterkste groei zien: van 440 aanvragen in 2024 naar 798 in 2025.
Noord-Brabant stond daarmee ook vijfde op de ranglijst van EU-regio's bij het EOB en tiende wereldwijd. Eindhoven stond derde in de Europese stedenranglijst van het bureau, alleen München en Parijs telden meer octrooiaanvragen.
'It freakin' worked' says Rob Joyce - and shows how relentless AI agents can find holes humans miss
RSAC 2026 The now-infamous Anthropic report about Chinese cyberspies abusing Claude AI to automate cyberattacks was a Rorschach test for the infosec community, according to former NSA cyber boss Rob Joyce.…
Washington content to be represented by actual empty chairs
RSAC 2026 Back in the day (circa 2023) when cybercrime group Scattered Spider and its help-desk voice-phishing calls were a relatively new threat, the feds considered pulling the government's top cyber-threat hunters and their private-sector counterparts into one room to share information, in real time, about this loosely knit extortion ring that was terrorizing enterprises.…
“Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software.”
